Take Flight
by CUtopia
Summary: We are all being labelled off and sometimes, all we want is to break free from it. Fay Dunbar one day comes to realise that she already did, without noticing.


Entry for **"Transfiguration"** at **"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments"**

 **Task:** For this task, I would like you to take the idea of labels or symbols and apply them to a character. Min 300 words

Entry for the **"Crystals, Gemstones and Astrology Challenge/Competition"**

 **Libra - September 23rd to October 22nd**

Expert: Write about a character who is born between September 23rd and October 22nd (if their birthdates are not provided, this can be fanon), and pair them with a character who has a compatible zodiac sign. In this case, it is a character who is an Aries (born between March 21st and April 20th). (1,500-4,000 words) -

(Fay's birthdate is unknown, Fred was born on April 1st)

* * *

Fay Dunbar had always known that most people had a very limited picture of who she was. Since her First Year, she had been stamped off and not many people bothered to give her a second look.

Maybe she was just too shy, a trait that people attempting to talk to her noticed first about her, due to the fact that she would stutter around awkwardly or would not even be able to open up her mouth at all.

They had labelled her off as a socially incompetent, shy bookworm, and it was also playfully rumoured that she was related to Hermione Granger as they both were spending a lot of their time in the library or hidden behind a old book. And in her Fifth Year, at the latest, when nearly every Gryffindor in her year went to join Dumbledore's Army to oppose Dolores Umbride's reign, everybody was also convinced that she never took any risks. That she would rather stick to the rules dictated by a cruel woman than to step up and take action to at least try and change things.

To all her classmates, she was something like a nobody.

And maybe, she truly was as unnoticeable as they thought. A book addict. A careful person. Somebody who just preferred to stand in the background of a scene rather than to have all the attention drawn towards her.

Yes, she did everything to not to be seen – there was nothing worse for her than to have all eyes on her. She would walk into the Great Hall with her eyes glued to the stone floor under her shoes, acting a little bit like a small child that was covering its eyes with its hands and believed that nobody could be able to see it.

And really, nobody was really paying attention to her – a fact that she liked.

So, they had applied this label to her, with her knowledge, and she found it rather comfortable. Fay knew that there could have been worse, really.

It was a lable that was easy to fit in, without any big efforts needed. It was also rather balanced between positive and negative, giving her the picture of a person who did never cause any trouble at all while being friendly.

In fact, she did not need to do anything to keep up with the expectations people might have. She was just acting like herself, and everyone was pleased.

But as she grew up, Fay found that she sometimes felt like she was sick of being reduced to that shy, withdrawn bookwork. Because nobody ever seemed to bother to dig any deeper. Fay sometimes just wished that she could break free from her label.

While all the girls around her started to become involved with boys and the evening talk in her dormroom revolved mainly around snogging and having a crush, Fay felt like her label was keeping her from having this too.

She felt like she had gained herself a little bit more self-confidence, she could have a platonic conversation without feeling like her tongue was twisting up. She was able to walk around with her head held a little bit higher and her gaze wandering around.

But it did not seem like any boy was noticing the changes in Fay.

And even though she told herself that it was not important to her if anybody saw her in a new way or even developed something like a crush on her, she felt as if it was a setback.

As if she had been a cocoon, hidden, not entirely ready to face the world yet, and now, she had started to break the hull and had turned into a butterfly. She was ready to take flight, to shake off her cocoon, her label, and to show everybody that there was more to know about Fay Dunbar than the shyness and the books.

Fay desperately wanted to show everybody that she was intelligent, smart, kind and a good friend. That she did not need to stand in the focus of things to be someone, to be her.

But it was as if everybody still looked at the empty cocoon, totally ignoring the butterfly standing next to it, spreading its beautiful wings.

Maybe it was harder to shake off a label than she had thought.

It was frustrating for her to realise that she was still the same girl to them while she had started to be someone else. All she wanted was to break free from her old self.

For some time, she tried to be a little bit more noticeable by raising her voice in class, laughing louder, walking around the halls of the castle with a smile...

But nothing of it seemed to work out properly and so she retreated back into her little shell, only opening up to a few people.

oOo

It was a rather warm spring afternoon on which Fay had decided to cave herself in on her favourite hiding place to study for her upcoming O.W.L. exams in quiet. So she had packed up her books and some parchment and quills for notes and had made her way to a small grove. It was located near the Black Lake and enclosed by thick blushes and therefore the ideal place to study without being seen by anybody.

Fay enjoyed to sit on her blanket, undisturbed, while the sun was sending its rays down on her.

"Hello, little fairy."

Fay jumped to her feet in shock as she heard a voice from above her head, her book falling to the grass next to her naked feet. There couldn't be anyone around, she would have heard anybody who tried to approach the spot where she had been seated...

She lifted her head and her green eyes widened as she saw a grinning Fred Weasley standing on a thick branch of the tree to her right.

"What are you doing up there, Weasley? You could break your neck!," she exclaimed, feeling how a slight blush crept its way to her cheeks.

"I am moved by your concerns about my safety, Fay," he answered, his grin growing impossibly wider. Moving effortlessly, he climbed down from the branch and approached her.

"What are you doing here, Weasley?"

She tried to sound as self-conscious as she could, hoping to be able to show him that she did not approve his invasion of her secret place, but something about the way he acted made her feel less confident than she wished.

Fred shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his flaming red hair.

"Admiring the beauties of the day."

And while he said that, he looked directly into her eyes, making her heart jump and sweat broke out in her palms. What was happening here?

"I... I don't need you to make fun of me, Weasley," she stuttered, her cheeks glowing.

His head leaned slightly to the side, looking slightly surprised, he asked:"Why do you think I would be here to make fun of you, Fay?"

"I know what everybody thinks of me," she stated bluntly and picked up her book, brushing a little bit of dirt off the edges and smoothing out some pages that had been wrinkled upon hitting the ground. "I am a nobody, a book addict, isolated."

"Well... how good I don't really care about what people say about how others are."

"I am still certain that you don't know me," Fay whispered, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Fred smiled at her, looking at her with his warm brown eyes.

"I think I know more about you than you think. You simply tried so hard not to be noticed that you did not realise that somebody was looking at you all the time. That there was somebody who never labelled you off."

He had stepped closer while talking, his soft voice and the intense gaze from his eyes making her dizzy. It was as if she was dreaming, but the feel of his skin against hers, as he brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, made her realise that she truly was awake and that this was really happening.

"I saw you because you are so peacefully resting within yourself. I admire that you do not seek for attention, that you just do what you want to do. That you don't bend yourself only to fit in. I don't see a shy, isolated person in you, no, I see a dreamer."

He took a deep breath, looking a little bit as if he had been waiting to get rid of these words for a very long time.

"And you have no idea how beautiful you look when you are just staring into the nothingness while sitting in the library. Damn it, my heart is racing..."

Fay did not know what to say – she had always imagined a moment like this while trying to fall asleep, how she would react, what she would answer...

But now, as she found herself in this situation, she could not do anything but open and close her mouth like a fish, stripped off of any good answer.

"In... well, in short, I think I... I like you a lot...," Fred stuttered, looking incredibly handsome as his usual self-assured attitude dropped.

"I... um... wow..."

Fred cleared his throat and gave her a crooked smile.

"I... I think I like you too," Fay whispered, her heart seemingly jumping out of her chest. It was odd, she thought... all this time she had wanted to spread her wings, without actually noticing that she, the butterfly, had already taken flight for somebody long ago.


End file.
